Campaign finance reports released this morning revealed that the North Central West Virginia Business Owners PAC - which remains, at least as far as the Secretary of State’s website is concerned, an unregistered group - appears to have a membership that is actively and aggressively supporting some candidates for Morgantown’s City Council. This support is coming in the form of considerable financial donations to a block of candidates that the NCWVBO-PAC was already supporting in campaign literature. 

The NCWVBO-PAC has four board members: Andrew Smith (President), James Guiliani (Secretary), Jim Craig (Treasurer), and Dave Biafora (Vice-President.) Campaign finance reports released this morning show that NCWVBO-PAC Officers Smith and Biafora have donated a total of $2250 to local campaigns. Smith gave $250 apiece to Ron Bane, Al Bonner, Jay Redmond, Bill Graham, and Eldon Callen. Biafora gave $1000 to Kyle McAvoy. Giuliani and Craig do not appear to have donated.  

This alone would appear to reek of the kind of coordination that these seven candidates have been vociferously decrying in their public campaigns, and follows the same hypocritical strategy that many of these candidates employed in their coordinated efforts in both 2013 and 2015. 

However, Smith and Biafora are not alone in their giving. Significant donations, all from outside of Morgantown, have flowed into the seven campaigns that the NCWVBO-PAC is backing. These include $3500 in donations from Rick Biafora ($1,000 to Bonner and McAvoy) and $1500 from Biafora Inc (to Bonner). Another $2,000 came from Jerry Lorenze (he gave $500 each to Bane, Bonner, McAvoy, and Callen). Another $2500 came from Randy and Rachel Buzzo ($1000 to Bane, $1000 to McAvoy, $500 to Callen). You can see this below, in the following order - Bane, Bonner, Callen, McAvoy, Redmond:

The numbers above total $8,000 in donations from seven donors. All totaled, these seven have poured $10,250 toward the NCWVBO-PAC’s preferred candidates. Of that money, only $1250 has been confirmed to have come from within Morgantown’s borders. Andrew Smith’s home and business share an address. The Biaforas and the Buzzos live in Cheat Lake. Jerry Lorenze is more confusing, as he appears to live at both his bowling alley and in Cheat Lake, depending upon which document is being examined. 

What unites them are their business interests within Morgantown. The Biafora’s own and have developed considerable parts of the city, and have repeatedly demanded that the city council protect their interests (by intervening to either prevent or kneecap competitors’ projects). Andrew Smith owns Smith Rentals, a sprawling rental company that is not held in the highest regard by its customers. The Buzzos own Stadium View LLC, an apartment complex competing with newly built  (and various car dealerships). Lorenze owns Suburban Lanes, Euro-Suites, Keglers, and Stefanos.

For the record, this website takes no issue with anybody donating to anybody else. This is, after all, their money, and they are free to donate it in whatever direction they see fit, especially if they believe that such donations will materially benefit themselves down the line. In other words, nobody would pay a painter to paint a neighbor’s house (because only the neighbor would benefit) but plenty of people pay a painter to paint their own house (because they would benefit). That is what we are seeing here. Area individuals want to buy themselves a slate of politicians who would then return that financial support in the form of policy specifically designed to benefit their donors. That those individuals would attempt to buy themselves a city council in a city they do not actually live in is, of course, strange, but when you need a government to do your bidding somewhere, you buy the government that is there. 

Or at least, you attempt to.  

John Raese’s offer to WVU was laughably stupid. IMG, the company that Raese has insisted was treated in a preferential manner, offered WVU a guaranteed $86.5 million dollars in exchange for the school’s broadcast rights. Raese offered WVU, and this is true, nothing.

Morgantown-based West Virginia Radio, which has since launched a lawsuit accusing the university of rigging the bid process in IMG’s favor, had the least-thorough proposal in the first round… 

While it did not offer any guaranteed revenue in its proposal, the company projected the university would net roughly $5.7 million in new revenue over the next 10 years by partnering with it.

This is worth keeping in mind when considering Raese’s months-long freak out about the contracting process. Basically, he didn’t receive the preferential treatment he had come to expect. The article says as much:

Once WVU signed a letter of intent with IMG in January, West Virginia Radio owner John Raese began publicly protesting the bid process.

So in other words, IMG made a proposal that included specific proposals. Raese did nothing. And when WVU surprisingly went with the people offering actual money? Raese began his temper-tantrum. This though is my favorite part of Raese’s proposal…:

It touted the advantages and popularity of its award-winning broadcast team, four members of which had accumulated more than 30,000 followers on Twitter, and the statewide network of radio affiliates the company already has in place.

 …which leaves me asking this question: if Raese’s such a great businessman, something we’re always told, then is it more likely that he’d go with the business partner offering him cash money or the one offering him Twitter followers? Then why did he expect WVU to do anything different?

This morning, as I do every morning, I drove into Morgantown from my home in the county. Once there, I encountered a repaving project on Sabraton Avenue. This comes a few days after repaving done on Darst Street. This is construction being undertaken using monies raised from Morgantown’s recently implemented “user fee,” a weekly $3 charge incurred by anybody who works in city limits.

It is very tempting to be annoyed when major traffic arteries are blocked, especially for construction that could conceivably be happening at literally any other time. Weekends, for example, when there is less traffic and the city’s thoroughfares are consequently less overwhelmed.

But then the paving projects are finished - even if it felt like they took forever, as they did in some parts of city, seemingly inexplicably - and what is left behind are roads that are in literally immaculate condition. Yes, they’re newly paved, and yes, it is unclear how they’ll do in the winter, but I do not have the slightest hesitation in saying that the roads left behind are unquestionably better than they were before the project began.

This is made doubly-true when accounting for where I do a fair amount of my driving: in the county. There are roads throughout the county that are in absolutely abysmal condition. These are roads big (Route 73, starting at the truck stop) and small (Beulah Road is an outright disaster) and in-between too. This isn’t to ignore the occasional times that work is done: Baker’s Ridge Road has gotten resurfaced, and part of Route 73 did receive attention, and Camp Run Road was repaved too (inexplicably). But in aggregate, the county’s roads are in genuinely bad shape.

Part of this has to do with available funding. There isn’t enough money to maintain the roads we have, much less pretty enough of them up to make a substantive difference in the overall condition of things. It also has to do with planning (resources being used/wasted on Camp Run Road, for example, is a bizarre decision, given the condition of other more traveled roads), the weather, and other things too.

But what Morgantown has done is figure out a way to improve its infrastructure: by collecting monies specifically dedicated to doing precisely that, and then putting that money to use. We are less than a year into the city’s approach and it is already paying huge dividends.

Which leaves one question worth asking, again: the local politicians who opposed that fee need to thoroughly explain why it was that they want Morgantown’s roads to be as bad as Monongalia County’s. This includes both city politicians (like city councilor’s Wes Nugent, Ron Bane, and Jay Redmond, all of whom believed that the city’s roads were good enough as they were, allegedly) and county politicians (like Tom Bloom, whose opposition to the fee depended upon what day he was asked about it).

Obviously, we cannot expect our local media to press these four on why exactly they wanted Morgantown to be in worse shape rather than better shape. But voters should ask each of those men why it was exactly - especially given the outcome of the fee’s usage that we are now seeing and enjoying - that they wanted Morgantown to be in considerably worse condition than it could otherwise be.

For those wondering, the only explanation that makes any sense is political. Those four are opposed to Morgantown’s City Council majority on political grounds, and thus didn’t want them doing anything that they could point as evidence of their own good works. Bloom’s prevaricating was particularly ridiculous, as he superballed from objection to objection to objection without ever firmly declaring why it was that he thought that Morgantown’s roads should be in horrifying condition.

Needless to say, our politicians ought to be at least slightly better than this, even in a situation in which their political opponents are the ones originating the good idea, and especially if the benefit is better roads with only occasional inconvenience.

By the time WVU took the field for its fourth possession Sunday night, one thing was plainly clear: we had gotten too excited for Will Grier. Far more concerning, Jake Spavital had gotten too excited for Will Grier. On the team’s first three possessions, this happened:

• incompletion
  
• completion for -1 yards
• incompletion
• punt
• completion for 12 yards
• rush for 2 yards
• sack
• incompletion
• punt
• completion for 10 yards
• completion for -4 yards
• rush for 4 yards
• incompletion
• punt

Grier was 4/8 for 17 yards and had been sacked once. Running backs had carried twice for 6 yards. WVU had not scored, or substantively moved the ball, and had punted three times. This was literal garbage. 

Spavital finally - finally - woke up after four drives, apparently realizing that, yes, in fact, his trio of running backs actually were on the sideline and were available to play in the game. That got us this:

• rush for 5 yards
  
• completion for 9 yards
• rush for 12 yards
• incompletion
• pass for 2 yards
• completion for 11 yards
• rush for -1 yards
• incompletion
• completion for 12 yards
• incompletion
• rush for 5 yards
• completion for 3 yards
• interception

The interception was bad, but the balance was suddenly there, and WVU’s offense was off and (ha, ha) running. For the rest of the game, Grier would huck the ball all over the place, throwing three touchdowns, and WVU’s nonexistent running attack would get 200+ yards. It would be extremely difficult to come away frustrated, but throwing away an entire quarter on a new quarterback who could have simply been eased into his first game back in almost two years still gnaws at the “Coach smarter!” fan in me, especially when we know that last year’s running attack worked great. 

In fact, if we think back to last year’s offense, its primary problem was that Sklyer Howard’s throwing was just never quite good enough. Spavital’s solved that problem by simply doubling down on the throwing while abandoning what had worked just fine. He eventually adjusted, mercifully, and hopefully learned a valuable lesson, but it remains incredibly tempting to imagine what might have been if only WVU had come out of the gate more strategically. 

Other Thoughts

-Will Grier’s offensive decision-making appears to go like this: “I have a football in my hand, I’m gonna throw this thing as far as I can, GO!” That’s a very exciting approach in theory, but dumping the ball off to open receivers who are only a few yards in front of him never hurt anybody. 

-WVU’s delayed draw play worked like gangbusters. Run it more.  

-Did WVU get a fair shake from the referees? No. Every single call that could have gone against WVU did, including a disastrous second half that saw WVU repeatedly punished with huge calls: an out-of-bounds hit penalty against WVU’s kicker who knocked a guy tip-toeing down the sidelines, a phantom holding penalty followed immediately by a flag against Holgorsen (who had rightly gotten angry about the phantom holding penalty), followed by a fumble review that referees refused to initiate themselves and then botched anyway (that cost WVU a timeout too), followed by an absolutely inexplicable pass interference call on a thoroughly uncatchable ball. This will always be WVU’s lot but damned if it doesn’t get extremely frustrating at times. 

-Kyzir White flying around the field destroying people is great, and I am here for it and will continue to be here for it. He is literally a missile out there. He reminds me of a linebacking Bruce Irvin in that way. 

-Something I am less here for is a defense that apparently gets not only beat on blown coverages, but then is incapable of adjusting, and gets beat again on the same blown coverage on the same play. That is no good at all and has to get fixed, because even though it is tempting to say that Sunday night was a coming out party for Virginia Tech’s Josh Jackson, WVU’s defense made it way too easy for him. 

-Don Nehlen was at the game and WVU’s immediate tribute to him - going three-and-out with an overly enthusiastic and poorly executed first drive - was so touching. 

Last week, news broke that the ACLU had officially warned various state politicians about their social media behavior. One of those politicians was Monongalia County’s Tom Bloom. The County Commissioner has made a habit of blocking critical constituents on Facebook. The ACLU is balking at his doing precisely that because, while it is acceptable to ban people for obscenity and threats and other misbehavior, doing so simply because one of your constituents disagrees with you is a no go. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has referred to social media as a “modern public square.” When a government official cuts off access to a public square because of a constituent’s viewpoint, they are depriving that person of their rights under both the federal and state constitutions, said ACLU-WV Legal Director Loree Stark, who issued the notices.

“It’s unacceptable for public officials to deny their constituents access because of a differing viewpoint,” Stark said. “And it is just as unconstitutional to bar a constituent from engaging on an official social media account because they disagree with you as it is to ban someone from a town hall event.”

The more specific issue is that Bloom is using his personal Facebook page to engage in local political activity. He has a campaign page that he could use instead, but he prefers not to for whatever reason. But Bloom chooses to use his personal Facebook account to advocate politically, which in turn makes his personal page fair game for his critics. 

But Bloom, being Bloom, and having been caught redhanded, has persistently refused to acknowledge what he was doing, repeatedly insisting that the only people he banned were trolls operating under fake names, political activists who did not live in Monongalia County, and people who threatened both him and his family. He has now posted twice on the subject, once here when the complaint was first made public, and a second time today (although, oddly, he deleted that one after he got pushback from constituents who noted he was not actually allowed to simply ban people who had disagreed with him, because doing so was a First Amendment issue). 

Bloom used the pages of the Dominion Post to insist that he only posts about issues of local relevant interest on his personal page:

Bloom is active on Facebook, regularly posting to his own page as well as community forums.

“Today I posted about a five-car accident because I heard about it on the radio. Those are the kinds of things that I post. I try to put out information to help the community,” Bloom said. “If there are two goals that I have worked hard to achieve in my years of public service, they are accessibility and transparency, and I intend to keep my commitment to these goals.”

Bloom said he finds the timing of the claims interesting and speculated that he may have been included as a result of his recent public comments questioning how funds were used by the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation — a group formed when the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited and the National Parks Conservation Association brought a legal challenge to the air quality permit being sought by Longview Power.

Of course, Bloom knows damned well that the ACLU’s rebuke had nothing to do with his critical comments about the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, or the National Parks Conservation Association. That is because Bloom knows who it was that he banned on Facebook*. Yes, he banned some of the same cowardly trolls anybody who has been on local Facebook groups have endured; he also banned folks who do not live in Monongalia County (although this was not a universal rule, but rather one he chose to create whenever particular critics got under his skin). But he also banned his critics. 

How do I know? Because I am one of the people he banned. Not because I have a fake account (I don’t), not because I don’t live in the county (I absolutely do), and not because I threatened or harrassed him (I most certainly never did either). 

He specifically banned me because I regularly asked him to explain why it was that he was always trying to mislead people via his Facebook feed. Bloom came up in local politics when he only had to make sure that good old boy outlets (like the Dominion Post and WAJR) were pleased with him. As long as he fed them stories they liked, they returned the favor by keeping their attention elsewhere. But Bloom’s addiction to social media has opened him up to mountains of criticism given his ongoing commitment to flying completely off the handle whenever anything happens anywhere in the county. 

And he has never evolved to the point where he was willing to accept the idea that other people might be interested not only in what he said but in the wild inconsistencies buried within his claims. Bloom has never found a topic he is willing to honestly engage on, and has always gone out of his way to bury the truth in a maze of misdirection, misinformation, and misleading public statements. So this website teed off on him. 

This page has relentlessly criticized Bloom’s dishonest behavior, whether than meant discussing his angry dissembling about who his friends are, his ongoing attempts to mislead people about Morgantown’s User Fee, his absurd desire to waste hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on a website, his ridiculous demand that he be allowed to skip work whenever he felt like it without using his allotted vacation days, and all manner of other egregious misbehavior. 

Bloom hates that. 

He always will. He believes he is owed worshipful coverage. He is a good old boy (although not local) politician who believes that his only responsibility is to take care of entrenched political interests throughout the county. He is too old now to change and has shown no interest in more honestly engaging in political discourse about local issues. His loyalties are where they are and nothing is going to change that. He is what he is. 

But nobody has to accept that.

That, of course, is a bummer, but if he is really so annoyed about having to endure constituents who disagree with him, nobody is forcing him to be a County Commissioner. That is work he chose to do voluntarily. And if he wants to remain a County Commissioner? Well, nobody is forcing him to use his personal page for political activity. He has a political page that he could use instead. But he lacks the discipline and wherewithal to do so. Which is how he ended up here, on the wrong side of a First Amendment that he very clearly despises, all while insisting that his goals are “accessibility” and “transparency,” two laughably ridiculous claims. 

So it goes though in our local politics. Bloom is following in the footsteps of other local politicos who have done the same thing, all insisting that they are owed our performed ignorance of their dishonest shenanigans, all insisting that to hold them responsible for the things they voluntarily say and claim is a bridge too far.  

(*Incidentally, Tom Bloom could have figured out this mystery immediately if he had done literally ten seconds of Facebook research. I’m right here replying to an open call for elected officials who ban their constituents.)